КОМАНДИРИ НА ЛЕЙБГВАРДЕЙСКИЯ КОНЕН ПОЛК

1 ротмистър
Александър Мосолов
1879 - 1883
2 подполковник
Димитрий Ризенкампф
1883 - 1884
3 ротмистър Юрий фон Кубе
1884 - 1884
4 полковник
Барон Алфред Корвин
1884 - 1885
5 ротмистър Тодор Кабакчиев
1885 - 1886
6 ротмистър Владимир Цанков
1886 - 1886
7 генерал-майор
Петър Марков
1886 - 1908
8 полковник Иван Колев
1908 - 1912
9 майор
Владимир Даскалов
октомври 1912 - 1912
9 полковник Генко Мархолев
1912 - 1913
10 полковник Паун Бананов
1913 -¬ 1916
11 полковник Александър Кисьов
1916 - 1918
12 подполковник Любомир Босилков
1918 - 1920
13 подполковник Александър Марков
1920 -¬ 1921
14 полковник Никола Станимиров
1921 -¬ 1923
15 полковник Константин Златанов
1923 -¬ 1928
16 полковник Никола Халачев
1928 ¬- 1930
17 полковник Малчо Малчев
1930 -¬ 1934
18 полковник Костантин Марков
1934 -¬ 1935
19 подполковник Матей Златоустов
1935 -¬ 1936
20 подполковник Михаил Минчев
1936 -¬ 1938
21 полковник Тодор Антонов
1938

БЪЛГАРСКИТЕ БОЙНИ МАРШОВЕ

Българските бойни маршове

“Един завет” стартира нов проект. Ще представим историята, авторите и бойния път на маршовете на българските победи. Песенната традиция е дълбоко свързана с българската армия. Военната музика не е просто параден церемониал. В 6-те войни, които България води в новата си история военните оркестри маршируват в първата линия на боя и повдигат духа на войните. Малцина знаят, че по своето музикално наследство българската армия е уникална - бойните ни маршове са над 400!
Традиция е всеки полк, както и всеки випуск на ВНВУ да имат свой марш, прославящ бойните подвизи на частта.
Като композитори и поети на бойни маршове и ръководители на военни оркестри се изявяват най-видните български творци: Иван Вазов, Николай Ракитин, Добри Христов, маестро Георги Атанасов, Емануил Манолов, Цветан Радославов, Георги Шагунов, Александър Морфов, Драгия Тумангелов, Любомир Бобевски, както и мнозина вдъхновени войни - участници в битките, които изливат въодушевлението си в стихове, писани на цигарени кутии по землянки и окопи, които по-късно стават възторжени паметници на българския дух. Щастливи сме, че разполагаме с едно уникално проучване: „По следите на една безсмъртна песен” от д-р Николай Русев, издаден в емиграция в Париж през 1988г. В повече от 1600 страници д-р Русев е събрал е текстовете, нотите и историята на всички български бойни маршове - в книгата фигурира маршът на всеки випуск от ВНВУ и ШЗО, всеки полк и всяка част, със снимки, история, плакати и картички от онова време. Книгата на д-р Русев практически съдържа всичко за българската военна музика. В наши дни значителен принос за историята на военната ни музика има д-р по музика Тодор Стоев - член на ръководството на СВВНВУ. Д-р Стоев е носител на международна награда по музика в гр. Лече (Италия). Той сам е написал доста маршове. Негови са повечето задълбочени публикации по темата в сп. Един Завет.
Веднага след Освобождението като капелмайстори в новата българска войска се назначават предимно чехи. Много от тях има високо музикално образование като диригенти на войскови духови оркестри. Както във всички области на новата българска държава, чехите имат огромен принос за организационното укрепване на военната музика и военните оркестри. Но те са чужденци и от тях не може да се очаква пълно сливане с българския дух. Затова като създатели на бойни маршове се изявяват най-вече техните ученици - първите български военни музиканти. Много от тях също са възпитаници на водещи музикални училища от Европа.
Разбира се, много от възрожденските песни и популярни мелодии от времето на борбите за национално освобождение също намират своя маршов аранжимент и стават част от традицията на българската войска.
Особено място в българската маршова песен има първия химн “Шуми Марица”. Той е създаден още през 1876г. по време на сръбско-турската война, в която българска доброволческа част се сражава под командването на генерал Черняев.
Смята се, че първия бележит композитор на български бойни маршове е Александър Морфов (1881-1934). Той е възпитаник на 24 випуск на ВНВУ. Морфов създава 22 марша. 12 от тях са по негов текст, а останалите - от проверени автори. Маршът “Ний ще победим” , който композитора написва за своя 24-ти випуск се превръща в маршова класика. Той написва също така маршовете на 41- ви и 42-ри випуск, с което утвърждава традицията всеки випуск да си има марш. Връх в творчеството му е “Марш на македонските революционери” известен още като “Изгрей зора на свободата”
Родоначалникът на българската опера маестро Георги Атанасов (1882-1931) завършва Букурещкото музикално училище, след което учи в Италия при самия Пиетро Маскани. Малко известен факт от живота на маестрото е, че в продължение на 25 години той е капелмайстор на гвардейския полк и създател на 20 бойни марша, сред които този на 46-ти випуск “Съдбата нам е отредила”
Основателят на българската професионална музика Добри Христов (1875-1941) учи в Прага, където е личен ученик на Дворжак. Наред със своите велики произведения във всички музикални жанрове, Д.Христов е автор на “Български народен химн на Н.В. Царя” по текст на Агура, както и “Напред към подвизи и слава”, който се използва днес като марш за среща на знамената, както и на държавни глави. Негов е и “марш на 53-ти Орловски випуск”
Една от най-крупните фигури, свързани не само с войнишките маршове, но и с военната музика изобщо, е композиторът и капелмайсторът Георги Шагунов (1873-1948). Завършил Лионската консерватория, младият маестро отбива военната си служба като капелмайстор на 24-ти Черноморски полк. Шагунов написва близо 1000 различни симфонични произведения и над 400 марша. Той пише маршовете на 48-ми, 49-ти, 50-ти, 51-ви, 58-ми, 59-ти, 60-ти випуски на ВНВУ, маршове на различни полкове, както и такива, посветени на различни събития. Все пак, над всичко остава неповторимия “Един завет” (1919)по текст на Иван Йончев. Той е звезден миг за авторите. Признанието на цял народ прави от марша синоним на връзката на минало с бъдеще, а като музикална творба е направо изумителен, безукорен като музикален строеж, хармония и мелодия. Шагунов пише още “Марш на ВНВУ” и соловият марш на оркестър “Герои-летци” в памет на кап. Дим. Списаревски.
Връхна точка достига българския боен марш с творбата на Михаил Шекерджиев (1889-1957) по текст на подп. Константин Георгиев “Велик е нашия войник”. Това е такова постижение, такова истинско прозрение, което не може да се повтори и остава уникално в пълния смисъл на думата. Никой, никога, при всяка смяна на политически климати и режими не можа нито да отрече този марш, нито да го забрави. Той остава в сърцето на българина като негово достойнство, негова опора и вяра. Шекерджиев написва и редица други чудесни маршове: на 44-ти, 45-ти, 61-ви кадетски випуск и “Марш на танкистите”.
Възпитаниците на ВНВУ от 1937 до 1946 си спомнят своя преподавател по музика и диригнет на хора на училището Драгия Тумангелов (1890-1946). Негови са “Топовен гръм” (по Ив. Вазов), марш на 63-ти випуск (”Бяло море”), по текст на юнкер Живко Попов и др.
Известният марш “Бдинци”, всъщност марш на 3-ти пехотен Бдински полк е по текст на Никола Попов и музика на полковия капелмайстор Боню Кирчев (1875-1948). Кирчев заема този пост 25 години!
Балканската война показва силата на българското оръжие. Победата над Османската империя вдъхновява армия и народ. В епичните боеве при Ескиполос, Петра, Селиолу, Бунархисар, Люлебургаз, главно участие има 4-та Преславска дивизия. Скоро след това дивизията получава своя марш, известен още като “Ечи ти роден наш балкан” по стихове н майор Никола Янакиев и музика на полк. Никола Блажев (1877-1945), капелмайстор на 43-ти полк.
В състава на 7-ма Рилска дивизия през 1913г. се бият двамата приятели поручик Найден Андреев и подпоручик Владимир Гълъбов. По-късно те са отново заедно през 1915г. в настъплението срещу Сърбия. Тогава създават “Булаирски марш” (Марш на 22-ри Тракийски полк) и “Марш на 7-ма Рилска дивизия”.
По същото време композиторът поручик Никола Колев написва няколко марша. Един от тях, по стихове на поручик Гатю Тасев е маршът “Млад картечник”.
Александър Кръстев (1860-1902) създава изключителния марш “О добруджански край”, който става известен през 1916г. по музика на Любомир Бобевски.

Източник:
"Един завет"

Още един щрих за имиграцията ни в Северна Америка-En.

...But within months of Washington's speech in 1895, a large wave of Italians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and Bulgarians broke over Steelton, and this was followed by one wave after another until World War I. Bodnar found that the immigration had a "devastating impact upon the town's black working force." Black workers stopped progressing up the job ladder, they lost semi-skilled occupations to the Slavs and Italians, and many were forced to leave town in search of work. The black population declined...

Още за имиграцията ни в Северна Америка

Българи
When, in 1893, the famous Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov recounted his journey to the World's Columbian Exposition , he could not have known that his remarkable book Do Chikago i nazad (To Chicago and Back) would become instrumental in the immigration and the choice of final destination of generations of Bulgarians. Когато, през 1893, на известния български писател Алеко Константинов recounted пътуването му към света Колумбов изложение, той не би могъл да знае, че неговата забележителна книга Да Chikago I назад (до Чикаго и назад) ще станат инструментални в имиграцията и избора на окончателното местоназначение на поколения българи. By the year 2000 the Chicago area was among the largest Bulgarian settlements in the United States. До 2000 година в Чикаго беше сред най-големите български селища в Съединените щати. The census counted 5,683 people of Bulgarian ancestry in metropolitan Chicago, and unofficial community estimates ranged from 20,000 to 30,000. Преброяването брои 5683 души на българските прадеди в метрополни Чикаго, и неофициални общността оценки варират от 20000 до 30000.
The first Bulgarians who began to arrive in Chicago, as early as 1870s, were students sent by American Protestant missionaries for further study in the United States. Първите българи, които започнаха да пристигат в Чикаго, като най-рано 1870s, са били студенти, изпратени по американските протестантски мисионери за по-нататъшно проучване в Съединените щати. Most returned, but those who remained formed the basis of an ethnic presence. Повечето върнати, но тези, които останаха формира на основата на етническа присъствие.
There were two major waves of Bulgarian immigration to the United States. Там имаше две големи вълни на българската емиграция в Съединените щати. In the beginning of the twentieth century, unemployment and overpopulation stimulated emigration. В началото на двадесети век, безработицата и пренаселване стимулирани емиграция. Approximately 50,000 predominantly single men from Bulgaria proper (“the kingdom”) and from its lost territory of Macedonia moved to the United States in the first years of the twentieth century. Около 50000 предимно мъже от България, едно-единствено правилното ( "царство") и от нейната територия на Македония загубил премества в Съединените щати през първите години на двадесети век. Most were peasants or unskilled laborers who worked in mines, steel mills, or railroad construction. Повечето са селяни или неквалифицирани работници, които са работили в мините, стомана мелници или жп строителство.
The second wave began with the fall of state socialism in Eastern Europe. Втората вълна започна с падането на държавния социализъм в Източна Европа. After 1989, thousands of young, well-educated Bulgarians arrived in Chicago, not with the intention of earning some money and returning back home as many of their predecessors had, but intent on building a new life in America. След 1989 г., в хиляди млади, добре образовани българи пристигнаха в Чикаго, а не с намерение да печелите пари и връщане обратно вкъщи колкото се може повече от своите предшественици имаше, но намерение за изграждане на нов живот в Америка. Between those two waves, because of the US restriction on immigration in the period from 1924 to 1965 and changes in Bulgarian emigration regulations, only small numbers of job-seeking youths and opponents to the Communist regime emigrated. Между тези две вълни, тъй като на САЩ ограничаване на имиграцията в периода от 1924 до 1965 г. и промените в българската емиграция наредби, само малък брой млади хора, търсещи работа и противници на комунистическия режим емигрират.
Bulgarians initially formed a distinct community centered on Adams Street, just east of Halsted. Българите първоначално образува отделна общност центъра на Адамс улица, само на изток от Halsted. The first two Bulgarian bookstores in the United States opened there, as well as a growing number of bakeries, taverns, and travel and employment agencies. Първите две български книжарниците в САЩ откри там, както и нарастващият брой на пекарни, механи, и за пътуване и работа агенции. Later, numerous Bulgarian families that had traveled to America through Germany settled among Germans in Lincoln Square or in Albany Park before moving to the northern suburbs. До скоро, много български семейства, които са пътували до Америка през Германия уреждат сред германците в Линкълн Square или в Олбъни Парк преди да се преместите в северните предградия.
In 1902, the first Bulgarian newspaper, Struggle, appeared in Chicago, followed by Bulgarian News a year later. През 1902, на първия български вестник, борба, се яви в Чикаго, следвани от Българската телеграфна година по-късно. Around 1905, the first Bulgarian Protestant Group was organized. Около 1905, първите български протестантски Групата бе организиран. An evangelical mission Zhivot (Life), a neighborhood cultural club, and a few fraternal and mutual benefit societies were started in 1911. Един евангелски мисия Zhivot (живот), A квартал културен клуб, и няколко братски и взаимна полза общества са започнали през 1911 г.. The two Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox churches, St. Sophia, established in 1938, and St. John of Rila, founded in 1996, have been not only religious places but also social centers devoted to maintaining ethnic awareness, language, and traditions through Sunday schools and social gatherings. The numerous political organizations that Bulgarians have joined or established, such as the Macedonian Political Organization (founded 1922), the Bulgarian Socialist Labor Federation (1910–1917), the American Slav Congress (1930s), the right-wing Bulgarian National Committee—Free and Independent Bulgaria (founded 1949), and the Bulgarian National Front (founded 1958), have also aimed at preserving ethnic pride. Двамата български Източна православни църкви, Св. София, създадена през 1938 г., и св. Йоан Рилски, основана през 1996 г., са били не само религиозни места, но също и социални центрове, посветена на поддържането етнически съзнание, език и традиции, до неделя училища и социални събирания. Многобройните политически организации, че българите са се присъединили или установени, като македонска политическа организация (основан 1922), Българската социалистическа федерация на труда (1910-1917), американският конгрес Слав (1930s), в дясното крило Българската национална Комисия по-свободна и независима България (основан 1949), и Българската народна фронт (основан 1958), също са насочени към запазване на етническия гордост. Chicagoans of Bulgarian descent more recently contributed to metropolitan culture with the festivities on the occasion of the donation of the bust of Aleko Konstantinov to the University of Chicago in November 1996. Chicagoans на български произход по-скоро са допринесли за метрополни култура с празненства по повод на дарение на бюст на Алеко Константинов към Университета в Чикаго през ноември 1996 година.
Daniela S. Hristova Даниела С. Христова

Още за Българите в Северна Америка-En.

THE FIRST BULGARIANS IN AMERICA
Aside from the rare adventurer, few Bulgarians settled in the United States before the great immigration wave of the early twentieth century, in which thousands of southern and eastern Europeans altered the country's ethnic cast. The earliest documented Bulgarian immigrants were converts to Protestantism, who arrived around the middle of the nineteenth century to pursue higher education in America, as Nikolay G. Altankov notes in The Bulgarian-Americans, published by Ragusan Press in 1979. Their passages were funded by American Protestant groups intent on grooming talented natives for missionary work back in Bulgaria. Although some Bulgarian students did return home to spread the gospel, others chose to remain in the States, settling in their adopted country with their families.
Early Bulgarian Americans included Ilya S. Iovchev, who arrived in 1870 and became a journalist, and Hristo Balabanov, who came to the States in 1876, earned an M.D., then established a medical practice in Tacoma, Washington, in 1890.
SIGNIFICANT IMMIGRATION WAVES
Bulgarians have a long tradition, dating to the Byzantine period, of migrating to flee political turmoil. Every unsuccessful revolt against the Turks in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was accompanied by mass migrations of Bulgarians to Russia, the Ukraine, Moldavia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and other Balkan nations. Expatriate Bulgarian communities formed and thrived in some of those countries. Today, an estimated two million ethnic Bulgarians live beyond the country's borders, with the vast majority residing in Russia and Romania.
Bulgarians first started immigrating to the United States in large numbers between 1903 and 1910. During this period, approximately 50,000 Bulgarians from Turkish-occupied Macedonia and from Bulgaria proper, or "the kingdom," arrived in the United States. Economic opportunity was the primary attraction for Bulgarians from "the kingdom," who were escaping overpopulation and unemployment in their native regions. Macedonian-Bulgarians had an additional impetus to emigrate; the unsuccessful St. Ilya's Day revolt of 1903 drew brutal reprisals from the Turkish army, which laid waste to three Macedonian provinces and killed 5,000 revolutionaries and villagers. Some 330,000 homeless Macedonians fled to Bulgaria. Within months, the largest wave of Bulgarian and Macedonian Bulgarian emigration had begun.
After 1910, political developments continued to influence the ebb and flow of emigration from Bulgaria. Territorial loss following the Balkan Wars and the First World War drove between 400,000 and 700,000 ethnic Bulgarians from Aegean Thrace, Macedonia, and Dobrudzha into Bulgaria proper. Their arrival strained the already limited economic resources of the country and led many Bulgarians, in turn, to seek work abroad.
For the typical Bulgarian immigrant of the early twentieth century, passage to the United States was not obstacle-free. With little of value to his name, a peasant would sell his land and livestock, mortgage his farm, or take a high-interest loan from a steamship agent in order to fund his transatlantic trip. Such a costly outlay meant there was no turning back. Some immigrants began their journeys at Danube River ports, traveling to Vienna and continuing overland by train to any number of European port cities (Hamburg, Le Havre, Trieste), where they spent up to a week or more in detention camps before boarding a ship to New York. Others embarked from the Greek ports of Piraeus or Salonika. Although their points of departure varied, most immigrants spent the month-long ocean voyage in steerage, in the hold of the ship, where crowded, unsanitary conditions and poor food encouraged the spread of disease. Many Bulgarians sought to avoid stringent entrance exams at Ellis Island, the immigration station in New York City, by entering the country illegally, through Canada or Mexico.
Bulgarian immigration never boomed the way immigration from other southern or eastern European countries did, and in 1924, the National Origins Immigration Act limited the number of Bulgarians who could enter the United States to a mere 100 a year. From 1924 until the lifting of the national origins quota restrictions in 1965, only 7,660 Bulgarians were officially admitted to the United States. Historians believe thousands more made America their home during this period, entering illegally via Canada or Mexico or with non-Bulgarian passports issued by the country of their last residence rather than the country of their birth. Many Bulgarians, it is believed, have been recorded as Turks, Greeks, Serbs, Romanians, Russians, or Yugoslavs. At one point, U.S. immigrations statistics did not distinguish Bulgarians from Serbs and Montenegrins. For these reasons, the actual number of people of Bulgarian ancestry living in the United States is believed to be significantly higher than the 1990 U. S. Census figure—slightly over 70,000 as opposed to the official 20,894.
The 1924 quota restrictions affected not only the dimension of Bulgarian immigration but its character as well. Most of the immigrants of the interwar years (1919-1939) were women and children joining husbands and fathers who had already established themselves in America. Otherwise, immigration from Bulgaria during these years had dwindled to a trickle.
The rise of the Communist state in 1945 precipitated a new wave of immigration. In contrast to the earlier immigrants, the postwar emigres were primarily political refugees and professionals who left Bulgaria with no expectation of returning. Thousands fled in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Bulgaria in 1944. Following retreating German troops to Germany or Austria, some Bulgarians settled in western European countries; others entered the United States under the Displaced Persons Act of 1947. A handful became Americans under the auspices of a 1944 congressional act that granted citizenship to refugees who were accepted into U. S. military service overseas. Until the Bulgarian borders were sealed in 1949, refugees continued to leave by the thousands. The route to America was often circuitous, with refugees typically spending several years in non-Communist European countries— Greece, Turkey, Italy, Austria, Germany—or even in South America before finally making their way to the United States. After 1956, the flow of postwar refugees slowed to a mere 100 to 300 a year, but periodic relaxations on travel or border regulations continued to give the determined occasion to flee.
In 1989, the demise of single-party rule in Bulgaria brought an end to Communist restraints on travel and opened the country's borders. Many Bulgarians, fleeing economic instability under the new government, are once again leaving for western European countries or America. Since 1990, they have been immigrating to the United States at a rate of about 1,000 a year. Like those who emigrated during the Cold War, these immigrants are predominantly skilled workers and professionals.
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
The early immigrants tended to settle in Slavic or Balkan enclaves in the Midwest and the Northeast, where unskilled laborers could find work in factories, mills, and mines. The earliest recorded Bulgarian communities arose shortly after the turn of the century in the cities of Steelton and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and New York City. Smaller numbers of Bulgarians settled in the American West or Northwest as farmers or railroad workers. Between 1910 and 1914, a group of ethnic Bulgarians from Bessarabia established a farming community in North Dakota. Another group established itself in Yakima, Washington, as fruit growers.
Nevertheless, the most popular destination for new arrivals was the Midwest, where, for instance, the twin cities of Granite City and Madison, Illinois counted over 6,000 Bulgarian inhabitants in 1907. As the automobile industry grew, Detroit became home to the largest concentration of Bulgarians in this country—there were 7,000 in the city alone in 1910, with an additional 1,500 scattered in nearby Michigan cities. An estimated 10,000 Bulgarian Americans continue to live in Michigan today. In contrast, only about three to four thousand Bulgarians reside in the New York metropolitan area. Other cities hosting large numbers of Bulgarian Americans include Gary, Fort Wayne, and Indianapolis, Indiana; Lorain, Toledo, Cleveland, Youngstown, and Akron, Ohio; and Los Angeles, California. Pittsburgh, once a hub for Bulgarian immigrants, has declined in importance in recent years, while the greater New York and Los Angeles areas have attracted growing numbers of recent immigrants.
ACCULTURATION AND ASSIMILATION
As an ethnic group, Bulgarian Americans do not have a conspicuous or clearly defined image in the United States. Scholars have attributed the group's low profile to a number of factors. Bulgarian immigration, even at its height (1907-1910), never approached the magnitude of immigration by other comparable southern or eastern European nationalities. Practically nonexistent before 1900, Bulgarian immigration also occurred later. Those who did come led largely nomadic lives or were dispersed around the country and tended not to form distinct ethnic communities. There were no "little Bulgarias" from which the American public could draw its stereotypes.
According to Nikolay Altankov, the first scholar to make an extensive study of Bulgarian Americans, the group's own attitudes may have encouraged the indifference of the general public. Far from being vocal or visible, Bulgarians tend to shy away from involvement in public life. With some exceptions, they prefer to devote their energies to friends and families rather than to politics or ethnic activities.
When the early immigrants did attract notice, their "Bulgarian-ness" was often obscured by their identification with other Slavs. During the heyday of Bulgarian immigration, outsiders might have recognized Granite City's "Hungary Hollow" as an eastern European enclave, but few bothered to distinguish Bulgarians from their Magyar or Slavic neighbors. Insofar as Bulgarians were confused with larger Slavic groups, they encountered the same prejudices as those immigrants. Their opportunities for employment were limited, and they took the low-paying, unskilled, and often dangerous work that the native-born refused. They faced the inevitable derogatory epithets. Established Americans looked down on the newcomers, whose unfamiliar customs and lack of English skills alienated them from the mainstream and whose poverty forced them to live in crowded, unsanitary conditions.
By contrast, immigrants who arrived during the Cold War as political refugees received a more welcome reception. Their strong anti-Communist stance inspired sympathy. They were better educated, more cosmopolitan, and more highly skilled than the earlier immigrants. As academics, doctors, engineers, and small business owners, they had stronger financial prospects in their adopted country. However, because their numbers were small and they were even less likely to settle in specifically Bulgarian neighborhoods, they failed to raise the profile of Bulgarian Americans.
"While I am not a whole American, neither am I what I was when I first landed here; that is, a Bulgarian.... I have outwardly and inwardly deviated so much from a Bulgarian that when recently visiting in that country I felt like a foreigner.... In Bulgaria I am not wholly a Bulgarian; in the United States not wholly an American."
Stoyan Christowe in 1919, cited in Ellis Island: An Illustrated History of the Immigrant Experience, edited by Ivan Chermayeff et al. (New York: Macmillan, 1991).
The descendants of the early immigrants, the second generation, often chose to live in non-Bulgarian neighborhoods and marry out of their ethnicity. Educated in American schools and steeped in American culture, they were eager to cast aside the "differentness" that marked their parents. Increasingly, they spoke only English. Observance of Bulgarian customs went the way of regular attendance at a Bulgarian church. In short, second-generation Bulgarian Americans assimilated into American life, frequently at the expense of ethnic heritage. And yet, from the relatively comfortable vantage point as third-generation Americans, their children are feeling the draw of their past. Many Americans of Bulgarian descent are re-discovering their ethnic roots. Bulgarian folk dance and music, in particular, are enjoying a new popularity among Bulgarians and non-Bulgarians alike.

Кратка историческа справка за българската имиграция в Северна Америка-En.

Bulgarians
(Bulgar; adjective bulgarski, Bulgarian)
This part of the Slavic race inhabits the present Kingdom of Bulgaria, and the Turkish provinces of Eastern Rumelia, representing ancient Macedonia. Thus it happens that the Bulgarians are almost equally divided between Turkey and Bulgaria. Their ancestors were the Bolgars or Bulgars, a Finnish tribe, which conquered, intermarried, and coalesced with the Slav inhabitants, and eventually gave their name to them. The Bulgarian tongue is in many respects the nearest to the Church Slavonic, and it was the ancient Bulgarian which Sts. Cyril and Methodius are said to have learned in order to evangelize the pagan Slavs. The modern Bulgarian language, written with Russian characters and a few additions, differs from the other Slavic languages in that it, like English, has lost nearly every inflection, and, like Rumanian, has the peculiarity of attaching the article to the end of the word, while the other Slavic tongues have no article at all. The Bulgarians who have gained their freedom from Turkish supremacy in the present Kingdom of Bulgaria are fairly contented; but those in Macedonia chafe bitterly against Turkish rule and form a large portion of those who emigrate to America. The Bulgarians are nearly all of the Greek Orthodox Church; there are some twenty thousand Byzantine Catholics, mostly in Macedonia, and about 50,000 Latin-Rite Catholics. The Greek Patriach of Constantinople has always claimed jurisdiction over the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and he enforced his jurisdiction until 1872, when the Bulgarian exarch was appointed to exercise supreme jurisdiction. Since that time the Bulgarians have been in a state of schism to the patriarch. They are ruled in Bulgaria by a Holy Synod of their own, whilst the Bulgarian exarch, resident in Constantinople, is the head of the entire Bulgarian Church. He is recognized by the Russian Church, but is considered excommunicate by the Greek Patriarch, who however retained his authority over the Greek-speaking churches of Macedonia and Bulgaria.
Bulgarians came to the United States as early as 1890; but there were then only a few of them as students, mostly from Macedonia, brought hither by mission bodies to study for the Protestant ministry. The real immigration began in 1905, when it seems that the Bulgarians discovered America as a land of opportunity, stimulated probably by the Turkish and Greek persecutions then raging in Macdeonia against them. The railroads and steel works in the West needed men, and several enterprising steamship agents brought over Macedonians and Bulgarians in large numbers. Before 1906 there were scarcely 500 to 600 Bulgarians in the country, and these chiefly in St. Louis, Missouri. Since then they have been coming at the rate of from 8000 to 10,000 a year, until now (1911) there are from 80,000 to 90,000 Bulgarians scattered throughout the United States and Canada. The majority of them are employed in factories, railroads, mines, and sugar works. Granite City, Madison, and Chicago, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Steelton, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon, and New York City all have a considerable Bulgarian population. They also take to farming and are scattered throughout the northwest. They now (1911) have three Greek Orthodox churches in the United States at Granite City and Madison, Illinois, and at Steelton, Pennsyvania, as well as several mission stations. Their clergy consist of one monk and two secular priests; and they also have a church in Toronto, Canada. There are not Bulgarian Catholics, either of the Greek or Roman Rite sufficient to form a church here. The Bulgarians, unlike the other Slavs, have no church or benefit societies or brotherhood in America. They publish five Bulgarian papers, of which the "Naroden Glas" of Granite City in the most important.

Южнославянската имиграция в Америка-En.

South Slavic immigration in America
George Prpic

CHAPTER 19
World War I and After

I. After the War Was Lost
II. The Religious Life
III. Bulgarians and Americanization
IV. The Macedonian Struggle

The Bulgarians had not yet recovered from the defeat in the Balkan Wars when they had to face the dilemma of World War that broke out in late 1914. In October 1915 Bulgaria joined the Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey. The main reason for the decision of King Ferdinands government was Macedonia. Ferdinand, a native of Germany, was convinced that after a victorious war he would be able to gain Macedonia that had been taken away from him by Serbs and Greeks.

When by the end of 1915, the Bulgarian armies occupied Serbia, the Bulgarians in America were happy. However, the response of a majority of those who joined the Bulgarian army was less than enthusiastic because of bad experiences only two years earlier. Many Bulgarian Socialists, who were especially strong in the Midwest, followed the general anti-war line taken by their American comrades.

The Bulgarians in America, especially those who had not become citizens, did not fare well. It was probably because "their continued opposition to Serbian and Greek rule in Macedonia was looked upon by U.S. authorities with distrust." Moreover, the Greek and Serbian colonies also conducted their campaign against them. In spite of these obstacles the Macedonian revolutionary group continued its activities, and in 1918, a large Macedonian conference was held in Chicago, and passed a resolution in favor of liberty of Macedonia. [1]

One of the enemies of Bulgarian aspirations was the Serbian scientist and scholar, Professor Michael Pupin, who also served as an honorary Serbian consul in New York. In his speeches and articles he constantly advocated a Great Serbia in which Macedonia was to be merely Southern Serbia. All the Bulgarians


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who were not American citizens were regarded by American authorities and many influental people as German allies and enemies, especially after April of 1917. It was difficult to be a Bulgarian in America during World War I.

One of the outspoken Bulgarians at the time was Todor Cvetkov, a Bulgarian Socialist who arrived in Chicago at the end of 1908. Cvetkov had left Bulgaria for political reasons and lived for a while in the Croatian capital Zagreb which traditionally attracted many young Bulgarians. Vvetkov was a former theology student and in Zagreb he learned fluent Croatian, having experienced his conversion to Socialism. In Chicago he became the editor of the Croatian Socialist weekly Radnička Straža (Worker's Sentinel) that started to appear in December 1907. Later on Cvetkov finished his studies in the Law School at Valparaiso University, Indiana, where many South Slavs received their degrees.

Cvetkov became attorney-at-law and then worked among the the Croatians and Bulgarians and wherever his help was needed. A dedicated Socialist, he was for years a friend and adviser to many people in need. Turing the war Cvetkov was in the forefront of those that denounced the war. He also attacked the activities of the South Slav movement and even engaged in public debates with some of its leaders. As an editor of Radnička Straža Cvetkov aroused the ire of U.S. authorities. In the fall of 1917 they prohibited the publication of his paper because of its anti-war stand. Later on the paper continued for a while under several different titles always adhering to its radical Socialist ideas. [2]

The Socialists were strong among the Bulgarians and very active in publishing newspapers and periodicals. Until 1930 there were in the United States close to Thirty such publications. Because the Bulgarian language uses the Cyrillic alphabet all were printed this way. As a majority of Bulgarians were uneducated and illiterate, many learned to write and read in America. One of the primary goals of the Socialist Bulgarian press was to educate its readers, to inform them about events in the homeland and in America, to report the activities of Bulgarian and other Socialist workers, and to help them adapt to their life in America.


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In New York City the Robotnik (The Worker) was started in 1906. In September of 1907 the first Bulgarian daily Naroden Glas — The National Herald came into exisence in Granite City, Illinois, at the time the main and largest Bulgarian colony in America. [3]


I. After the War Was Lost

For his principles of self-determination which he had publicly announced, President Wilson was hailed by several of the Slavic peoples in Europe. However after the end of the war in which hundreds of thousands of Balkan soldiers had perished, self-determination was denied to several Slavic nations. One of them was Bulgaria. In the autumn of 1018 the Allies defeated the Bulgarian armies. The victors then imposed on Bulgaria the peace treaty of Neuilly on November 27, 1919. Bulgaria lost Macedonia in the west and the access to the Aegean Sea which she had gained in 1913. King Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his son Boris. Alexander Stambuliski, an agrarian politician, formed the new government. The country suffered a great deal from the consequences of the war and the punitive peace treaty which also limited its army to a minimum. [4] But most of all, the Bulgarians suffered emotionally from the loss of Macedonia. It was again placed under the harsh rule of Belgrade and Athens. Between 1918 and 1941, the Serbs and Greeks treated Bulgarian-speaking Macedonians as enemies and mercilessly suppressed any signs of Bulgarian nationalism, forced the people to change their family names, abolished their schooh, subjugated their Orthodox Church, arrested men by the thousands, declared an open season on all patriots, liquidated large numbers, and an the whole treated the Macedonians worse than the Turks had done. As the Macedonians had many friends among the former Western Protectant missionaries (most of whom were expelled by the new conquerors) and among the scholars, a great deal of publicity in the West followed.

Thus the Bulgarian defeat and loss of Macedonia caused bitter feelings among the Bulgarians and Macedonians in America. During and after the war a few thousand Bulgarians returned to the homeland. Some again made the trip back to America


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alone or with their families. Many wives and children, after 1919, joined the immigrants in America. There were now many more women among them than before 1914. And a new American-born generation was now making its appearance. Also, there was an increasing number of educated people and professionals.


II. The Religious Life

Over ninety percent of all Bulgarians and Macedonians belong to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church which is administered by the Patriarch in Sofia. In America the first Bulgarian Proteatant group was organized in Chicago around 1905. Its leader was P. D. Vassilef. An evangelical mission was started in the Methodist church on Monroe Street. Gradually there were established Methodist, Congregational, Presbyterian, and Baptist missions among the Bulgarians in Granite City and Madison, Illinois, and in Battle Creek, Michigan. Most of the books the ministers used were in the Bulgarian language. [5]

The only Bulgarian parochial school in the United States at that time was in Steelton, Pennsylvania, There were, however, evening schools for the children and grown-ups in Granite City and Madison, Illinois; Indianapolis, Indiana; Detroit and Battle-Creek, Michigan; Toledo and Lorain, Ohio; Homestead and Johnstown, Pennsylvania; and Lackawanna, New York.

The first Bulgarian Orthodox church to America, that at Sts. Cyril and Methodius, was established in 1909 in Granite City, Illinois. Other churches were founded in Steelton, Pennsylvania (1910); St. Stephen, Indianapolis (1915); St. Clement Ohridsky, Detroit (1929); St. Trinity, Madison, Illinois (1929); and one in Lorain, Ohio, in 1934. The number of regtstered parishioners was approximately eight thousand at the end of the 1920s.

As an administrative body, the Bulgarian Church began its official activities in 1920 as the Bulgarian Orthodox Mission under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Exarchate in Sofia. (In 1953 it was elevated to the Patriarchate.) The first head of the mission was Reverend Dr. K. Tsenoff. The center for the mission for the entire United States and Canada was in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1937 it was named the Bul-


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garian Eastern Orthodox Church, Diocese of the United States and Canada. [6]

In 1947 a canonical conference in Buffalo, New York, under the Chairmanship of Metropolitan Leonty, Primate of the Russian Orthodox Metropolia, elected Bishop Audrey Velitcki as the administrator of the diocese. The conference severed ties with the Holy Synod in Bulgaria "due to the takeover by the communists." However, in 1963 "for unjustified reasons, Bishop Andrey subordinated himself to the administrative orders of Sofia... without the knowledge and against the will of the entire clergy and elected representatives the parishes." As a result the diocese experienced many difficulties.

In 1963 another canonical conference convened in Detroit and decided not to accent the administrative orders from Sofia even though continuing "a spiritual relationship with the Mother Church." The Holy Synod then reorganized its structure in the United States "to settle the problems of church life ss determined by the conditions of this country." The Holy Synod of Sofia recently instructed Bishop Andrey to limit his activities to the city of New York. In the rest of the United States and Canada the head of the Bulgarian Church is still Bishop Kyril, who does not recognize the patriarch in Sofia.

There are twenty-five parishes in America and Canada served by full-time clergy. As Bishop Kyril says: "We are blessed with beautiful churches, educational buildings, social halls, choirs, and a very normal religious life." The headquarters of Bishop Kyril are in Toledo, Ohio. He was consecrated as bishop in the Russian Orthodox Monastery, Holy Trinity, Jordanville, New York, in August 1984. He refused to recognize the recently created Macedonian Church with the see at Ohrid, Macedonian Republic of Yugoslavia. In his statement in the Macedonian Tribune Bishop Kyril also said:

We, the Bulgarians, regardless of place of birth, are true Orthodox believers. We love and hold dear our traditions and national customs. But at the same tune, we are very devoted and thankful to the citizens of this great country of America — to worship, preach and teach without being disturbed by any outside sources. [7]


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While a great majority of the members of the diocese before the 1950s were the immigrants from Macedonia and their descendants, hundreds of newcomers from Bulgaria, mostly refugees from the Communist rule, became new members during the last twenty years. They were also joined by the Immigrants from the Yugoslav Macedonian Republic whose center is in Skoplje.

The split within the Bulgarian Church in America and Canada is still wide open, causing a lot of bitter feelings on both sides. The controversy goes on in the same fashion as in the American Serbian Orthodox Church. It remains to be seen how and when — if ever — it will be resolved. [8]


III. Bulgarians and Americanization

Even though a Balkan immigrant may not be a regular churchgoer, the church always played a great role in his life. Basically, most old-timers — the peasant immigrants from Bulgaria — were conservative. In America many changed their views. In fact, some Bulgarians came as Socialists from the old country or from a stopover in Europe. Bulgarians like all other Slavic peasants possessed a lot of natural intelligence and inherited from the long time of struggle against the Turks an inborn sense of distrust, suspicion, and shrewdness.

It is interesting that the Dictionary of Races and Peoples of the Reports of the Immigration Commission (1910-1911) described the Bulgarians "less warriors in spirit" than some of their neighbors, und "more settled as agriculturists" due to their, traditional skill in horticulture. [9] While the assertion about Bulgarians as being less warlike may not be true, their ability as farmers and gardeners has been well known for a long time.

Surprisingly, many educated Bulgarians embraced Americanization eagerly and deliberately severed all ties with their mother country. This was, for instance, the case of the Bulgarian Stoyan Christowe, a fairly successful American writer. Born in 1896 in Konomlady, Macedonia, he came to the United States as a young lad and was educated at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana. He described, in his autobiography, how eagerly he embraced Americanization. To him this was not


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"the shock of alienation." Christowe claims that, while visiting in Bulgaria in the spring of 1838, during the audience with King Boris in Sofia it was easier tor him to talk with the king in English than in his native Bulgarian. He felt that "America, my America, stretched her arms across the distance so that I might hold on to her hand." So poignant was his nostalgia for America that he could hug a Ford car just because it was made there. He was afraid that after a few months he might become "re-Balkanized" and was happy when his friends told him: "You belong to America. America belongs to you. You don't know how fortunate you are." [10]

John Gunther, the American writer, who visited Bulgaria during the l930s calls the Bulgarians "poor, clean, intensely honest ... the best people in the Balkans." These are high compliments by a writer who traveled all over Europe at the time and met many other peoples. Gunther was impressed with the beauty of the Bulgarian country and the modesty of its king. Appropriately he called Bulgaria "the unfortunate little country ... mercilessly chopped asunder ... by the peace treaties." [11]

Reuben Markham, who spent years In Sofia as a correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, also highly praised the Bulgarians and was their true friend. In 1931 he published a book Meet Bulgaria which reflected his intimate knowledge of the subject. The work was considered the best general discussion of Bulgaria in the English language.

The people that Gunther called "the best ... in the Balkans" have had, like the rest of the Slavs, their share of problems in experiencing adjustment, alienation, and assimilation in America. Christowe (who partly anglicized his Bulgarian family name) after all his eager attempts to become a true American reflected in one of his writings upon some problems that Bulgarians experienced in the process of becoming Americans. "While I am not a whole American, neither am I what I was when I first landed here; that is, a Bulgarian," he wrote. His inherited native traits barred him "forever from complete assimilation." As a visitor in Bulgaria he "felt like a foreigner and was so regarded." While in Bulgaria he was not wholly a Bulgarian. in the United States he was not wholly an American. Thus he had to go "through life with a dual nationality." In America


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he longed for the sleepy villages and the intimate life of the Balkans. When he was in the Balkans he dreamed of America day and night. "Yes I cannot leave America," he writes, "though I am but half American." [12]

Christowe modified his views later on. At least to a certain degree this is how many educated Bulgarians felt about the problem. Millions of immigrants reacted differently in each individual case. Many even second and third generation ethnics have in a way dual personalities. They are torn apart by two loves: one for America, one for the country of their ancestors. Many Bulgarian immigrants, their children, and grandchildren have remained "half Americans." Indeed it can be said that millions of other ethnics feel the same way.


IV. The Macedonian Struggle

The activities of the church, press, and political organizations contributed to the making of many Bulgarians "half Americans." Most of the Bulgarian political activities in this country were, caused and prolonged by the Macedonian problem. The situation in Serbian and Greek controlled parts of divided Macedonia remained precarious. During the 1920s and 1930s the American and Western press kept reporting about the fighting in mountains and valleys in the heart of the Balkans: between the troops, and gendarmes on one side and the guerillas of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization on the other side. IMRO's leader was Ivan Mihajlov, popularly known as Vanča. The armed struggle in Yugoslavia went on for years. Mihajlov directed his struggle against Belgrade from his hideouts Sofia and the Bulgarian part of Macedonia.

The American Macedonians reacted vehemently against despotic rule, against the terror, killing, tortures, and burning in their native land. Their postwar organization in America was the Union of Macedonian Political Organizations. In Octobers 1922 it convened in a congress in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Delegates represented the organizations from some fifteen cities. The result of this gathering was the creation of the Macedonian Patriotic Organization, a union of all Macedonian patriotic organizations "under one standard and with one ideal: the liberation and


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unification of Macedonia." The president of the Central Committee was Anastas Stephanoff of Port Wayne; its secretary was Atanas Lebamoff. The center of the MPO moved to Indianapolis, Indiana.

The MPO claims to be the political spokesman of the American and Canadian Macedonians and has generally supported the goals and activities of the homeland IMRO. In its official creed the Macedonians are regarded as an integral part of the Bulgarian nation and the Macedonian language as a Bulgarian dialect. Since its founding the MPO has undertaken numerous activities and printed papers, memoranda, pamphlets, books, and almanacs in English and Bulgarian on the Macedonian struggle. It has tried to attract the interest of congressmen and senators In Washington and has appealed to several U.S. Presidents to intervene diplomatically in favor of Macedonians outside Bulgaria. It has also held yearly congresses at which many American and foreign scholars have spoken in sympathy with and in support of the Macedonian cause.

On February 10, 1927, the first issue of Makedonska Tribuna — The Macedonian Tribune, a weekly organ of the MPO, appeared in Indianapolis. It has been published ever since. It also serves as the voice of the Macedono-Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the United States and Canada. For fifty years it has been an interesting chronicle of the lives of Macedonians and other Bulgarians on this continent and in the homeland. It is printed in both Macedonian (with Cyrillic letters) and English. [13]

Out of the movement that was founded by patriotic Macedonians during the 1920s has developed a well-concerted effort by a large number of Macedonians in America and foreign lands. Trieir goals are described by the leader of the IMRO, Ivan Minailoff, in his book in English, Macedonia: A Switzerland of the Balkans.

When he was a young revolutionary leader in the mountains of the Balkans, and his name was mentioned in whispers in Yugoslav Macedonia, he received Stoyan Christowe in his mountainous hideout in Bulgaria. Christowe as correspondent of the Chicago Daily News was the first foreign correspondent to be granted such an opportunity by Mihailoff. John Gunther who then worked for the same paper was refused an interview


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by "Vanča." The Daily News and scores of other American papers featured Christowe's articles on Mihailoff and the Macedonian revolutionary struggle in the Balkans. Later on Christowe wrote his book Heroes and Assassins on the same subject. However, the book was a great disappointment to the Macedonians. His hosts in the mountains expected him "to be a Macedonian first, a writer and an American afterward." [14]